


Begin Again

by katdefbeom



Category: GOT7
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, F/M, Strangers to Lovers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-21
Updated: 2018-11-21
Packaged: 2019-08-26 20:45:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,280
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16688539
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/katdefbeom/pseuds/katdefbeom





	Begin Again

You open your eyes and peek out the window to see the Seoul skyline come into view. You stretch your limbs as a smile makes its way on your face because you’re glad to be back. You have spent the past 2 weeks in London as a translator for your Manager to help close off a business deal. You were extremely stressed because this was a big deal for the company you work for and you didn’t want to screw this up by messing up your translations. Luckily, everything had turned out well and now you were back home.

_Home._  You were originally from LA but when an opportunity arose for someone to move to the sister company in Seoul, you had gone for it without a second thought. The move was permanent but after everything that you had gone through, there was nothing keeping you in LA apart from your family, who had given you their full support. When the sister company in Seoul found out that you could speak Korean thanks to your studies in high school, they did not want anyone else to take the position but you. It was the perfect opportunity and you couldn’t wait to leave mostly everything behind; but especially  _heartache and disappointment._

You check the time on your phone and smile as the flight attendant asks the passengers to prepare for landing and you see the photo of you and your best friend Mark. He is a few years younger than you but you guys had been next door neighbours since childhood and even attended school together. You guys were inseparable to the point where people thought you were a couple and you both just laughed it off because you were definitely more like siblings. You didn’t have any siblings so when they had moved in next door, it was a blessing and you finally gained friends. When you had informed him of your move to Seoul, he was beside himself with worry. He didn’t want you going by yourself especially due to your state;  _you had just gotten out of a very abusive relationship_. Mark would only allow you to move if he could move with you. You had tried to get his parents to talk him out of it but since they saw you as one of their daughters, they had given Mark their full support about moving with you. He will finish the rest of his studies in Seoul and live with you while you were there. You had eventually relented and four years later, he is on his last year at uni in Seoul while you had been promoted as your company’s official translator. 

* * *

“I’m home!” you yell out as you walk through your apartment door and close it shut. You weren’t sure if Mark was home or out with friends but when you heard rustling sounds and his infamous laugh while you were shrugging off your coat, your question was answered. You were about to walk towards the couch when you see him darting around the corner and crashes into you for a hug. You’re lucky he’s strong enough to hold both of your weights or you would’ve ended up on the floor. You can’t help but laugh at his actions because you missed him too but just as you were about to hug him back, he slides down until he’s kneeling in front of you and hugging you from the waist.

“Hey! What the – what are you doing?!” you ask while trying to pry him off of you. There’s no use, he’s too strong and he’s just clinging on tighter.

“Please don’t leave again! I’m starving! All I’ve had is ramyun the past two weeks. The next time you leave, I think I would die from starvation!”

“Stop being dramatic!” you laugh as you keep trying to pry him off to no avail. You suddenly remember a sure fire way to get him away from you. “ _Markiepoo…._ ” And he’s gone in a flash. He had scooted so far away from you; he was almost passed the kitchen. You couldn’t help but laugh at the look of disgust on his face and smirk back at him in victory. “Well, I did tell you to let go” you say with a shrug.

“Yeah, but Jesus you didn’t have to bring the big guns out” he says while getting up from the floor.

“Oh, come on you big baby. Why don’t you let me have a quick shower and we can go and have a coffee? To celebrate my return and you eating actual food again. Deal?”

“Now you’re talking.” 

* * *

Jaebeom and Jackson had sat down on their usual table in their frequented coffee shop with their friends after ordering their drinks. The duo had lost a bet against Youngjae, Jinyoung, BamBam and Yugyeom and as a result had to buy drinks. Mark was initially part of the losing side of the bet but when they had asked him to come out, he had said that he was expecting his best friend out and would be busy. He promised his share of the drinks another time.

“I bet Mark hyung just wanted to cheap out on the drinks” BamBam snickered and Jaebeom couldn’t help but be a little bit annoyed. It was Mark’s idea for the bet and Jaebeom had just sided with him, so Mark should definitely have been there to suffer with him and Jackson.

“Nah, Y/N noona is back from her trip” Jackson countered him. Jaebeom had given him a sceptical look because he had met all of Mark’s sisters and not one of them was named Y/N.

“Who is Y/N noona? I didn’t know Mark hyung had a girlfriend?” he asks the table around him only to have them laugh at him. “Yah! What’s so funny?” he asks them again as their drinks arrive.

“Hyung, you’re literally the closest to Mark hyung out of all of us, we just can’t believe you don’t know who she is” Jinyoung finally answers him after wiping the tears from his eyes from all the laughing.

“So… is anyone going to tell me who she is?” Jaebeom asks again as he sips his drink.

“You can ask hyung yourself. He’s about to walk in here with noona now” Jackson points his head towards the door to show him.

Jaebeom shifts his seat next to Jackson so he can have a good view of when the both of you walk in. He was really interested to know who they were talking about and why his hyung hasn’t mentioned you before. He takes another drink from his coffee just as the door swings open to reveal you walking in with Mark right behind you. He doesn’t know what happened but he found himself holding his breath as soon as he set his eyes on you. He then found himself unable to look away from you like he was in a trance.

You were the most beautiful creature he had ever seen and he’s convinced he was dreaming. There was no way you were  _real_. You were standing there, in jeans and a simple red sweater, with barely any make up on, and yet your very presence commanded the attention of not just him, but of everyone else in the room. You go to stand in line with Mark and that’s when Jaebeom finally decides to swallow in the breath he was holding; except he forgot he was in the middle of drinking his coffee which caused him to choke. Jackson pats him on the back and asks if he’s okay and Jaebeom waves him off. He looks up again and finds his eyes locked with yours. A blush creeps up on his face as he realises that you have seen him during that embarrassing moment.  He wishes the floor would swallow him up. 

* * *

You head out with Mark after you freshen up and make your way excitedly to the café that he mentioned. Even though you regularly drink coffee from there, you realise that you have never been there before because he would always wake up extra early and get your coffee for you. He truly was the best friend ever. He points it out as you approach and it’s only two blocks away from your apartment. You secretly decide that one morning, you will be the one to get the coffees and surprise Mark. He deserves it after all. He holds the door open for you to let you in first, and as you wait for him to walk in, you decide to have a quick look around. The café was nice and cosy and had the right ambience. You realise you can probably even do some overtime work here and that’s what Mark probably already does. He guides you to stand in line with him and points out the menu. You were looking through it when you were distracted by someone who sounded like he was choking on their drink.

You turn to the source of the sound and find a guy around Mark’s age almost coughing his lungs out. You then turn your attention to his friend who was rubbing his back to soothe him when you realise it was Jackson, and then you realise that all of Mark’s friends were there. But you didn’t recognise who this guy was.  _Had Mark made a new friend in the last two weeks?_  He looks up at you and you find yourself unable to look away. Something about him intrigued you. He seemed like the cold type with his hard stare but the blush that was creeping up on his face said otherwise.  _Is he blushing because of you?_  You shut yourself down at the thought. He was blushing out of his embarrassment for choking on his drink, not because he’s looking at you.  _Get yourself together Y/N_. You then turn your attention to Jackson who was waving at you. You smiled and waved back at him before pointing them out to Mark.

“Sorry, I didn’t realise they were here. We don’t have to sit with them. We can sit by ourselves and catch up. They won’t mind” he says to you as you pay for the drinks.

“What? No. I don’t mind sitting with them. Come on, they’ve already seen us. We can catch up just us two when we get home. Plus I miss them too” you reason with him. He accepts this and the both of you head over to the table.

“Welcome back noona!” the boys yell out in chorus as you approach and you can’t help but laugh out loud. You don’t notice the way Jaebeom stares at you as you do so; he thinks it’s one of the sweetest sounds he has ever heard. The boys stand when you arrive and you start to give them a hug one by one.

“No wonder hyung didn’t want to hang out with us” Youngjae pouts as he releases you from the hug.

“Aish, you should’ve told me you had plans with the guys. I wouldn’t have interrupted” you say to Mark as you playfully smack him.

“Apart from me wanting to spend time with you because it’s been two weeks, the other truth is that I lost a bet to the maknaes plus Jinyoung and I didn’t want to have to pay for their drinks” he says to you with a shrug.

“I knew it” an unknown voice said to your right. You turn to the source and see that it is the guy who was choking earlier. You find yourself staring at him intriguingly as he does the same; the trance only breaking when the bell by the door chimes to announce someone leaving or entering.

“Hi, I don’t believe we’ve met. I’m Mark’s best friend and roommate Y/N” you put your hand out towards him to shake as you introduce yourself.

“No, I don’t believe we have. I’m Jaebeom, Mark’s best friend at uni” he introduces himself as he shakes your hand but it leaves you a little bit confused.

“I thought Mark’s best friend at uni was JB?” you enquired.

“Yeah uhh – that’s my nickname at uni” he clarifies for you. “I thought Mark said his best friend was Y/N/N?” he enquires back to you.

“Yeah that’s me” you say to him with a smile. You then look down at your hands and realised they were still holding each other. You look back at him and see that he realises the same and you both let go awkwardly. You try to cover the blush on your face by drinking your coffee, but you notice him smirk so you don’t think it worked.

“How have the two of you not met?” Jackson enquired at the both of you, in which you shrugged.

“I think every time we went out with Y/N, JB was busy in his studio and then when I asked you guys to come over, Y/N was always away” Mark answered with a shrug.

“Studio?” you questioned Jaebeom. You see a blush tint his cheeks when you look back to him.

“Um yeah – I’m trying my hand at song writing and producing music” he says while he rubs the back of his neck with his hand. You find him adorable but try to calm yourself.

“That’s awesome JB. I’d like to hear some of your stuff some time. If that’s okay?” you ask him with a smile as you take another sip of your drink to cover up your blush.

“Uhh yeah – sure – I mean of course, it’s okay. Also, you can call me Jaebeom” he stammers back to you and the both of you are oblivious to the reactions of the boys. He doesn’t normally like girls calling him Jaebeom because he feels it’s too personal and reserved for his very close friends – which all happened to be guys – and he let you call him that after just meeting with you. “What about you, Y/N? You must travel a lot considering you are away every time we come to yours” he asks you back curiously.

“She’s your noona, Jaebeom. Treat her as such” Mark points out to him. Jaebeom looks a bit embarrassed and is about to apologise to you when you wave him off.

“Don’t be so sensitive, Mark. I’m not Korean, the honorifics don’t matter to me in private. I’ve always told the guys that it is up to them to decide if they want to use it, and the same will go for Jaebeom” you reply to Mark soothingly. You shake your head at him because you know he’s too protective of you. “Now, what was I going to say?”

“Noona is a translator!” Youngjae replies excitedly and you can’t help but giggle at his brightness.

“Yes, Youngjae is right. I’m the main translator for the company I work for, so it requires a lot of travelling” you direct your answer to Jaebeom and you see him nod to acknowledge your answer.

You then spend the next hour answering their questions about what you got up to in London the last two weeks. The conversations make your heart full as you realised how much you missed all of them and how they are now close to you like family. During that hour, the boys don’t fail to notice the way Jaebeom stares intently at you while he tries to absorb everything about you. The boy couldn’t help it; everything about you interests him. He watches you like a hawk, to the point where he’s almost noticed all of your mannerisms while you talk. None of the boys understand why you aren’t noticing the way Jaebeom is acting right now. Like a love struck puppy. Well you do notice, but you try and put it out of your mind as you didn’t think there was any way he could like you.

Eventually, you and Mark head out for some proper dinner since the boy had starved himself the whole two weeks you were away. Once the two of you are out of sight, the boys unleashed hell on Jaebeom. They teased him to no end about the way he was acting and all he could do was shake his head and laugh. He even received a text from Mark telling him to watch himself, because if he hurt you, Mark would make sure to end him. He tried to tell them that he couldn’t possibly like you, because he doesn’t believe in love at first sight, and that he had just found you interesting. The guys just shook their head at his reply and made sure to tease him the rest of the night until they all left the café. 

* * *

You shift restlessly on your bed for the  _umpteenth_  time since waking up at 3am; you hate jetlag with a passion. You grab your phone from the night stand and notice that it’s 545am. How can you be awake this early on a Saturday? You groan one last time and decide that since you can’t get any more sleep, you’ll head over to the café from yesterday to grab a drink and enjoy the solace; that way, you would also have enough time to get Mark a coffee for when he wakes up. You swap your pyjama shorts for some grey sweat pants and not bothering to put on a bra, you just grab one of Mark’s overlarge hoodies that you’ve stashed in your closet and put that on. You looked at yourself in your bathroom mirror and really could not be bothered to do any make up since it’s so early, so you just tie your hair up in a messy bun, grab your shoes and keys and head out. 

* * *

Jaebeom didn’t fare any better than you did. He barely got a wink of sleep because you had occupied his thoughts completely. He couldn’t get you out of his head. He tried working out, reading a book, watching some TV, listening to music, but none had worked. He received 2 hours at best. His alarm had gone off at 6am even though it was a Saturday as he had been too distracted to turn it off last night. Now he is paying for the consequences. After another 5 mins, he realises that there is no way that he would be going back to sleep. He decides to go to his studio and maybe write his frustrations in out in a song; but first he would need a coffee. He puts on a hoodie and his shoes, grabs his notebook and shoves it in his backpack, and heads out to the café. 

* * *

Jaebeom only lives a block away from the café, so he will reach it before you do. He is just a few metres out when he thinks he notices you walking towards the direction of the café. He thinks he must be delirious because what are the chances of the both of you bumping into each other? As you near each other, he starts to realise that it definitely is you that is heading towards the café; and his heart beat is going so fast he feels like it’s going to burst out of his chest. He tries to calm himself not understanding why this is happening to him. He closes his eyes and counted to 10, hoping that he would settle once he opens his eyes again but boy was he wrong.

He opens his eyes and there you are, in all your glory, standing right in front of him. He almost can’t believe it because there you are, standing in front of him in just sweats and an oversized hoodie, hair up in a messy bun, bare faced but with baggy eyes and pouty lips probably due to lack of sleep, and he thinks you are even more beautiful than when he saw you yesterday. He really thinks he’s seeing things, because this is too good to be true, but you grumbled a ‘ _hello_ ’ at him and he almost combusts.  _How are you even more adorable in your sleepy state? What have you done to him?_  He tries to open his mouth to say hello back from just mumbles his words together. You even have his mind jumbled up. He stands there awkwardly and mortified and seeing his expression causes to you giggle. You find him so adorable when he’s acting this way. There was a certain appeal to his confident and chic persona yesterday, but you definitely like him more like this; soft and adorable.

The both of you don’t realise how long you’ve been standing there staring at each other until one of the employees opens the door to state that they were already open, thinking that the both you thought the café was still closed. This caused the both of you to chuckle before finally entering the shop. As you order your drinks, you notice that there is only the two of you there at the moment and it may be awkward to sit on different tables, so you ask if he wants to grab a coffee and sit together. He finds himself saying yes before you had even finished your sentence and you chuckle at his eagerness.

You both spend the next hour getting to know each other better; talking about each other’s dreams and passions. You talked about how you and Mark grew up together and he talked about how he met all of the boys. You ask him all about his music because you find the way his eyes light up and smile widen endearing. Jaebeom asks you about your travels and every time he sees you smile at him, he falls for you again. He loves how passionate you can be, talking about the places you’ve seen and people you’ve encountered. He knew he was denying it all last night and even some of this morning, but he has now accepted that he may have growing feelings for you. He looks at you and thinks that he’s definitely still dreaming because he can’t believe how a person like you  _exists_. He can’t stop thinking about how perfect you are – that is until you pinch him on the cheeks.

“Ow! What was that for?” he says as he rubs his reddening cheek; not that it would make the redness go away since he can feel a blush creeping up.

“I’m sorry,” you said with a giggle. “You were just spacing out and I guess you must be really tired. I tried waving my hands in front of you but I still couldn’t bring you back. So I did the next best thing” you say with a shrug.

You smiled at him and informed him that you had to go and order Mark’s coffee because you knew he would be up soon and would wonder where you were. You sat back down to wait for Mark’s drink to be ready and you don’t fail to notice Jaebeom sitting there frowning with furrowed eyebrows like he was deep in his thoughts. You don’t know what possessed you to do it, but you grabbed his hand and squeezed it gently.

“Jaebeom, are you okay?” you asked him kindly.

He drifts his eyes from the table to his hand, which you’re holding in yours. He finds himself full of warmth and comfort just from a simple touch. He knows he can’t ignore this any longer or it will drive him crazy. You sense the tension from him so you squeeze his hand again and rub soothing circles around it, imploring him to answer you.

“Sorry Y/N noona, I just – you – I find you really interesting and I can’t help but be drawn to you. If I’m being honest, you were the reason I couldn’t sleep last night. I couldn’t stop thinking about you. I – I would like to get to know you more… if that’s okay?” he confesses and you can’t help but blush.  _He likes you_. You couldn’t believe your luck, and there’s no denying that you find him interesting and attractive too. You find a little part of you hesitating because of your past, but the fact that Mark is best friends with him assures you that Jaebeom is nothing like your ex.

“I would like that very much Jaebeom” you smile at him as you decide to give him a chance. You hear your name called out for Mark’s order and you reluctantly let go of Jaebeom’s hand to grab it from the counter. You walk back to the table and stand there hesitantly; “I’m free tonight – after 7 – if you want to…?” you trail off hoping he would get the hint.

“Take you out to dinner? Yes, I’d like that. I’ll pick you up from your apartment?” he asks and can’t help the grin that widely spreads on his face.

“Yes, I’ll see you then” you giggle at him. “Make sure you bring something with you that will help you butter up Mark because you’ll need it” you say to him with a small wave and he can’t help but laugh as you head towards the door of the café. You’re just about to exit when you turn back around to give Jaebeom a tip.

“Anything edible should be good” you smile at him with a thumb up.

“Thanks for the tip!” he smiles back at you and shakes his head. He still couldn’t believe you said yes and he can’t stop himself from grinning like an idiot.

He can’t wait to see what the future would bring.


End file.
